Project description

Modern ICT facilitates the readiness and expectation for communication, anytime and anywhere. This leads to manifold changes in communication and information behaviour within the society. Spatial, temporal, cognitive and economic limitations of communication and information vanish. As a consequence, relaxation times are reduced and the risk of a uneven work-life balance increases. This causes drastic physical and psychological impacts with serious effects on well-being and work efficiency. Conventional social communication rules, e.g. limiting telecommunication to office hours or having limited access to information when using conventional information technology, are no longer valid in the modern era of communication and information. This carries the risk of overextending individuals. The indefinite participation in communication as well as handling of information cannot be managed anymore, since it overtaxes the limited attention of an individual.

The lack of a new social communication paradigm with respect to modern ICT confronts our society with numerous questions: How can we deal with the overload of information and the increasing expectation of having constantly informed and instantly available individuals? How can new communication rules and technical solutions reduce disturbances on the work efficiency and well-being of employees? How can work-related communication and the need for privacy be adequately separated? These questions are investigated in the project “Social Link” with focus on the growing number of knowledge workers.

The main goal is an interdisciplinary investigation and design of a new social communication paradigm (Social Link) for ideally organized work for knowledge workers and assistance for their work-life balance. The project combines different perspectives which are necessary for an integral investigation of the mentioned questions, i.e. legal, psychological, economical and technical.